Open shifts consider the employee's availability, department, job, and task. If an employee does not meet the criteria of the listed open shift, they will not be eligible to take it. Utilizing open shifts enhances flexibility in scheduling.
Creating Open Shifts
Navigate to Schedule Tab: Click the Schedule tab.
Add Shift: Click Add Shift, or hover over the shift date and click the plus sign.
3. Customize Shift: The Add Shift modal opens with fields to customize a single shift:
Schedule Policy: Applies previously created schedule policy details to the shift
If you have created schedule policies, select one from the Schedule Policy drop-down list.
Learn more about schedule policies here.
Employees: The default is 1 open shift, but you can choose multiple open shifts with the counter or fill in the number.
For multiple open shifts, adjust the counter option.
To select specific employees for the shift, remove the open shift option and select the employees, or just add employees along with the open shift by typing their names or clicking Search to view all employees.
Date: Select the date.
Start and End Time: Select the start and end time (default is based on the working hours you entered for schedule rules in setup).
4. More Options (optional):
Profile: From the Profile drop-down list, select a master profile that enforces rounding and other schedule-related policies you want to use. Note that if a schedule policy is selected, that policy will be used instead.
Additional Fields: Complete the Department, Job, Cost Centers, and other fields as needed.
Punch Rules:
Round punches to shift start time: Follows the schedule rules specified in either the schedule policy or the selected master profile.
This rule must be used with a schedule policy. A scheduling rule can be used on a specific employee, a master profile, or a shift.
The options for "round punches in" and "round punches out" must be chosen in the schedule policy itself. These choices will not do anything if the user only makes them in the add shift modal.
They only work when a schedule policy with those options chosen is chosen directly in the add shift modal. In this case, the checkboxes are automatically chosen.
Although the user can deselect them as an override, they can not choose them as an override.
Round punches to shift end time: Follows the schedule rules specified in either the schedule policy or the selected master profile.
This rule must be used with a schedule policy. A scheduling rule can be used on a specific employee, a master profile, or a shift.
The options for "round punches in" and "round punches out" must be chosen in the schedule policy itself. These choices will not do anything if the user only makes them in the add shift modal.
They only work when a schedule policy with those options chosen is chosen directly in the add shift modal. In this case, the checkboxes are automatically chosen.
Although the user can deselect them as an override, they can not choose them as an override.
Do not allow early punches on web/mobile: Prevents punches before the scheduled time.
This option only applies to mobile, web, and tablet punches (not time clocks).
Disable Supervisor Notifications: Turns off all shift and schedule notifications for the supervisor on record.
Color Coding: Select a color to differentiate the schedule from other schedules (e.g., different colors for front office employees and warehouse employees).
Notes: Add notes as needed.
5. Save: Click Save & Publish to make the shift public, or Save & Close to save the shift without publishing it.
6. Notification: The number of Open Shifts will appear as an orange counter-notification.
Creating Open Shifts from an Existing Schedule
Quickly reschedule an employee to an open shift by dragging and dropping the shift. E.g. when an employee calls out sick, you can create an open shift by removing them from their scheduled shift.
Drag and Drop: Drag and drop the shift from the employee to the open shift row.
Publish: Toggle on Publish to make the open shift available to eligible employees. The open shift will now be visible for eligible employees to view and request.
Approving Requests
You can approve or deny employee requests to take a shift:
Navigate to Schedule Tab: Click the Schedule tab.
Click Requests: Click Requests.
Approve or Deny: Click Approve or Deny to respond to the employee’s request.
Auto-assign Open Shifts
When not enough employees submit requests to take an open shift, you can auto-assign open shifts:
Open Auto-Assign: From the Schedule tab, click the hamburger icon.
Select Auto Assign Open Shifts: Click Auto Assign Open Shifts.
Confirm: Click OK to auto-assign the open shifts to eligible employees.
Note: An open shift must have employees that match its criteria to be auto-assigned.
Open shifts, trade/cover requests, and daily employee availability are exclusive to our Shift Scheduling - Premium. To upgrade to 360+, log in and click "Upgrade Now" in your Fingercheck account. 🚀